Printing News

Snowshoes are a very old type of winter footwear, developed by indigenous people centuries ago. The design is brilliant – a webbed lacing, or, in the case of some modern snowshoes, synthetic fabric, stretched over a frame to distribute the wearer’s weight over a larger area and allow them to walk on top of the snow. While modern snowshoes may look quite different than the original designs, they’re still made according to the same concept. Just because a design is old and proven, however, doesn’t mean that it can’t benefit from the addition of new technology.

While snowshoes are often used for recreational purposes, they also play a big role in the military. The Mountain Warfare Training Center (MWTC) in northern California trains Marines for mountainous conditions and cold weather operations. During the winter months, snow can reach up to six to eight feet with temperatures as cold as 20 degrees below zero. Snowshoes are a must – and if they break, they have to be able to be fixed quickly.

(MCSC), recently worked together to 3D print snowshoe clips quickly and cheaply so that soldiers can be equipped with replacements if they need them in the field.

“If a Marine is attacking a position in the snow while in combat, and the clip on their boot breaks, it makes it difficult for the Marine to run forward with a rifle uphill to complete the mission. If he or she has a 3D printed clip in their pocket, they can quickly replace it and continue charging ahead,” said Capt. Matthew Friedell, AM project officer in MCSC’s Systems Engineering and Acquisition Logistics.

The 3D printed snowshoe clips were made from strong and flexible resin and cost only five cents per piece. The team designed and 3D printed the clips within three days of the request.

“The capability that a 3D printer brings to us on scene saves the Marine Corps time and money by providing same-day replacements if needed. It makes us faster than our peer adversaries because we can design whatever we need right when we need it, instead of ordering a replacement part and waiting for it to ship,” said Capt. Jonathan Swafford, AM officer at MWTC.

, including a recent insulated radio cover. The radios that the Marine Corps use have lithium ion batteries that die quickly in the cold, so the AM Team designed a 3D printed cover that keeps the batteries warmer and helps them to last longer in wintry conditions.

“Just like the Commandant says, it’s important we continue innovating at all levels to remain ahead of our adversaries. Even our youngest Marines should be focused on innovation,” said Swafford. “The more of us who know how to use and design with this process, the better off we will be.”

The Marines share files using the Marine Maker website, and it’s not just used for replacement parts – additive manufacturing is also being utilized for prototyping and design.

“More than ever before, we are able to use 3D printing as a catalyst to spark everyone’s imagination for quick-fix solutions,” said Friedell. “The Marine Corps is leading the way in additive manufacturing, and we have to continue to use AM in every level of our warfare to fix equipment and weapons faster than the enemy and stay in the fight.”

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Arcam Takes EBM to the Next Level: Execs Detail the Future of Metal Additive Manufacturing

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One of the biggest announcements to emerge from this year’s RAPID + TCT event was the newest Electron Beam Melting (EBM) metal 3D printing system from Arcam EBM. The Arcam EBM Spectra H is a new system designed to handle high heat and crack-prone materials. Our team was looking forward to the announcement, and writer Sarah Saunders was on hand as the curtain dropped at the formal unveiling.

The unveiling

[Photos: Sarah Saunders]

Shortly thereafter, I enjoyed the opportunity to sit down with Arcam EBM CEO Karl Lindblom and Vice President, Product Management Annika Ölme to discuss the launch and business strategies.

“With this launch, we are taking EBM to the next level,” Lindblom said emphatically as we sat down.

“Customers have been asking for larger, faster capabilities, and have been realizing that we have a unique technology, offering handling of high heat. This is why there has been a lot of attention for this launch.”

He pointed to improvements made in engineering, and Ölme was happy to expand upon these areas. She pointed out three keys to what makes this announcement a milestone for the company:

Materials: We can build what no one else can, with a vacuum chamber, electron beam, and heat model impossible with other technologies to manufacture additively. (This, Lindblom added, delivers more power.)

Productivity: We see cost efficiency and reductions, as this sytem is 50% faster with a 39% larger build volume. This leads to huge reductions in time and money (where, Lindblom added, conventional manufacturing would see more incremental improvements).

System: This is not a machine, but a system. This allows for serial production at scale. It is not just an EBM machine; there is powder handling, a build tank, you can reuse powder without contamination, and maintain powder batch integrity and traceability for the whole manufacturing process.

These benefits are laid out in this video from Arcam EBM:

VIDEO

“All this shows we take into account our customers’ needs,” Ölme said in summary.

As additive manufacturing matures and sees more serious use, we often hear from more companies interested in industrial capabilities; the need to listen to users is critical for those companies that would see their offerings succeed in real-world conditions. By offering an ecosystem, not just a machine, Arcam EBM is seeking to respond directly to user needs.

“We have powder, we have support for customers who want to start in additive manufacturing with AddWorks,” Lindblom said. “We bring over to our visitors that we’re not just a machine supplier; we have a complete ecosystem to supply.”

In addition to meeting the physical needs through an ecosystem, hardware and materials suppliers must understand where the industry is going, where need is arising. For Arcam EBM, that direction is clear: production.

“Additive manufacturing going forward is really about production. The future is not about prototyping; that’s why we’re launching this now,” Ölme told me.

While of course prototyping, the original application for 3D printing, will remain a need across the board and a major application, future-looking advances are often laser focused on end-use capabilities. Metal additive manufacturing in particular is well suited for the rigors of final parts production, and each advance is another step toward seeing enhanced adoption and offerings at true scale.

“The journey of GE, the journey many go through, describes this very well,” Lindblom explained. “It takes many years — and the later you start, the later you benefit.”

Founded in 1997, Arcam offers decades of experience in this young technology, and through its close relationship with GE is able to build upon more decades of use in additive manufacturing. Arcam, a GE Additive company since its acquisition in late 2016, 95% held by GE since late 2017, has been growing to appreciate this positioning in gaining access to additional industry resources alongside new sister company Concept Laser. For its part, Concept Laser has also begun to see great strength in this positioning, as that company’s CEO told me when we spoke at formnext.

“It is growing from a technological standpoint, and this is very interesting to me as an engineer,” Ölme said of the growing industry.

This growth is a key driver to business, as Lindblom noted, and has been attracting many talented people to join the industry — and the company. This, as he and Ölme noted, is an advantage, particularly with the integration with GE and work with sister company Concept Laser. The relationship is itself still young, and was not without its growing pains.

“It was difficult in the first year; however, since the first of January this year, we can interact as much as we want. We are excited about the support we can get through all this,” Lindblom told me of the integration.

“All of a sudden we are part of something much larger — for us this is very exciting. The acquisition is aiming for growth. We are scaling up technology with the resources GE has.”

Ölme agreed, adding that there are now more opportunities to drive the business forward.

“The world opens up as we see so much with GE that we can use. I don’t think it could have been better, honestly,” she said.

“It shows that we, and GE Additive, are very serious about driving the additive revolution.”

Karl Lindblom, Annika Ölme, and the Spectra H

With more employees, access to a bigger campus, and a broad global portfolio of resources, Arcam is positioned to continue to grow in expertise and offerings as its focus on metal additive manufacturing continues to sharpen. Speaking with Ölme and Lindblom offered a welcome look into this company that is, in so many ways, making big things happen in metal 3D printing.

Sandia National Laboratories Wins Award for 3D Printing Work with Wind Turbine Blades

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US Department of Energy contractor Sandia National Laboratories has been working to improve wind power for decades, focusing on the technology at its Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility, and a couple of years ago the laboratory brought in 3D printing, fabricating new wind turbine blades from 3D printed molds. The project was undertaken in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and TPI Composites, the country’s largest independent manufacturer of wind turbine blades. It was started in response to the long prototyping times required to create new blades – the molds could take 16 months to construct before the blades could finally be built and tested.

Using 3D printing, Sandia and partners were able to reduce this time to just three months. Traditional mold-making is a three-step process that involves making an initial prototype of the blade, casting a mold of that blade and then using the mold to make a final prototype. Sandia and partners eliminated the first step entirely, creating the mold directly from a digital design. The demonstration was carried out using a relatively small 13-meter blade, but the technology could potentially be applied at larger scales, allowing designers to take more risks with experimental designs and accelerate progress in the wind turbine industry.

[Image courtesy of Brittany Cramer, Oak Ridge National Laboratory]

Sandia has now won the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer’s national 2018 Technology Focus Award for these turbine blades, which were the first to be constructed using 3D printed molds. In addition, it won FLC’s Excellence in Technology Transfer Award for advanced nanomaterial window films that could save consumers billions in energy costs each year.

“These two deserving collaborations align well with Sandia’s mission,” said Jackie Kerby Moore, Manager of Technology and Economic Development and Sandia’s representative to the consortium. “They strengthen our nation’s energy security and resilience by lowering the cost of energy technologies.”

Sandia led the design of the wind turbine blade, including an assessment of the feasibility of using additive manufacturing. TPI consulted on the mechanical parameters and carried out the structural design and CAD geometry required to mold the blade. ORNL 3D printed the mold in several sections in only two weeks, and the final assembly and manufacturing of the blade took place at TPI.

“The wind department at Sandia has expertise [in] designing blades, but our group doesn’t work with additive manufacturing. This project was an opportunity to combine expertise from two laboratories and an industry adviser that could immediately bring this knowledge into the private sector,” said Sandia researcher Josh Paquette.

3D printing materials do not yet offer the strength and fatigue resistance required to directly manufacture final wind turbine blades, so it will remain a prototyping technology for the time being. As materials and processes advance, this could change.

“The research-related molds are only made to produce a few blades while trying out different shapes in the prototyping process,” Paquette said. “The new process allows us to quickly change shapes and designs on the computer and then send it to the printer to print the mold.”

According to the American Wind Energy Association’s just-released 2017 annual market report, innovation in the wind industry has reduced costs by 67 percent since 2009, allowing for more widespread adoption even in locations with poor wind conditions. These innovations include taller turbines with larger rotary diameters, which allow wind farms to tap much more wind energy. As federal subsidies for wind production are being phased out, the use of technology to boost manufacturers’ efforts is becoming more critical.

“3-D printing will allow them to experiment with more blade iterations, leading to higher-performing wind turbines that capture more wind energy,” said Paquette. “Ultimately, we want to drive down the costs of wind energy to increase deployment of the technology.”

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More than 300 companies exhibited at RAPID 2018, and while we did a fair amount of walking the show floor, we unfortunately were not able to visit every single one. However, I was able to spend time with several great exhibitors at the show, including Ultimaker, displaying its new S5 3D printer; Raise3D, with its new Pro2 series; and China-based UnionTech, which was at the show with its PILOT commercial series.

Ultimaker

At Ultimaker’s booth, I spoke with John Kawola, the President of Ultimaker North America, about the steps the company is “experiencing in offering our technology to the professional market,” such as introducing the professional S5 and forming collaborative alliances with several global material companies to increase the number of engineering composites and plastics that will work with its portfolio. Lots of companies in varying fields are purchasing pellet materials for 3D printing now, and Ultimaker is helping them get in on the action.

“I think a lot of chemical companies – their customers are asking about it,” Kawola said about 3D printing. “Now all of the big names, like SABIC and DSM, want in.

“We’re making it easier for those companies to offer filament for 3D printing. They know materials, we know 3D printing.”

The company’s powerful and versatile new S5 3D printer, with a build volume of 330 x 240 x 300 mm, dual extrusion, and an enclosed front with tinted glass doors, is, according to Kawola, a “further extension” of the Ultimaker 3, and offers more advanced materials capabilities, such as nylon and carbon-filled.

“All of these things happening started with the S3,” Kawola told me.

At RAPID, the S5 was busily 3D printing an automotive disc brake using the company’s new Tough PLA material, which is available for purchase immediately. Because it’s hard and inexpensive, PLA is one of the most commonly used 3D printing materials, but, in the 3D printing world, hard and tough are not the same thing. Toughness, in materials science terms, is a material’s ability to absorb energy and deform without fracturing; this property is also defined as a material’s fracture resistance when under stress.

The company’s new material formulation, which is now the default material being shipped with the S5, is made by combining PLA with properties of ABS, such as its impact strength. The material is compatible with Ultimaker’s Breakaway and PVA support materials, and is great for easy, reliable 3D printing of larger sized technical models.

According to Kawola, that “feel-good factor” comes from prototyping with something, and then end up being able to use it later down the road. Tough PLA makes this possible.

Kawola tells me that Ultimaker will be introducing more materials in the coming months, primarily with some of its new material partners. Both the Ultimaker S5 and Tough PLA material are available for pre-order through Dynamism.

Raise3D

At the Raise3D booth, I met with Vice President of Marketing Patrick Rettew, and Marketing Manager Nadia Yaakoubi. Rettew describes the company as “customer-driven.”

“We like to consider ourselves problem solvers,” he explained.

[Image: Raise3D]

The company’s industrial yet user-friendly Pro2 series, introduced in March, were developed as a way to increase the use of

. According to Rettew, the “beauty of this paradigm shift” is customization, and that companies can thrive – if they want to – by using 3D printing.

[Image: Raise3D]

Both the 12″ x 12″ x 12″ Pro2 and the 12″ x 12″ x 24″ Pro2 Plus feature direct drive dual extruders with retracting nozzles, 32-bit motion control, and safe, quiet operation, thanks to a new HEPA filter. The machines are enclosed, so they can control the internal temperature really well, and it’s easy to lift the top off when working with PLA material.

The 3D printers have aluminum frames, wireless compatibility, and remote monitoring so you can see how your print, or even multiple prints in a number of locations, is progressing. High precision is ensured due to the use of optical sensors, rather than mechanical, in the Pro2 series, and Rettew told me that there are “stringent QC measures in place” in order to ensure that all of the company’s 3D printers are high quality.

A magnetic build plate, which provides even heating for excellent warping prevention, is easy to remove, and the 3D printers feature spool run-out sensors and an automatic print resume function, in case there’s a problem with the power during printing.

With a 0.01 mm resolution and the ability to achieve high temperature 3D printing higher than 300°C, Raise3D’s newest series answers the question Rettew says the company always asks itself – how can we make it easier for our customers?

“It’s important that we built such a fine printer,” Rettew says, noting that the Pro2 series was made to run 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. “We don’t do a lot of promotion, but we still attract attention.”

Due to the high torque of the 3D printers, they can handle bigger spools of material, and a wider variety of materials as well.

Each one also features a 7″ computer touchscreen, which I can attest is very easy to read, that allows you to wirelessly send STL files to the 3D printer; these files will then automatically convert to the necessary format, thanks to Raise3D’s complimentary IdeaMaker slicing software.

Raise3D’s Pro2 and Pro2 Plus 3D printers are perfect for small batch manufacturing, like the types of jobs defense contractors and engineers may perform, and it’s actually possible to print finished parts, since the machines can fabricate larger pieces.

Large print, with Nadia Yaakoubi for scale.

The company prides itself on helping other companies find solutions to issues they’re having, which is why Raise3D will always “inquire about their business – we care because we’re about solving problems.”

One example is a tough challenge Raise3D collaborated on recently, which resulted in the creation of a UL-approved, fire-resistant ABS material, which did not exist before now.

“That’s what we do,” Rettew said. “We solve challenges.”

[Image: Raise3D]

UnionTech

Right next to Raise3D at RAPID, stereolithography leader UnionTech had its booth…though don’t refer to the technology as SLA around US subsidiary UnionTech’s General Manager Jim Reitz, who prefers to call it SL. Reitz drops the industry-standard ‘A,’ which stands for apparatus, because he believes that the term SLA “blurs the lines” and “dumbs it down.”

“I think the new wave of innovation will come from people who integrate existing technology with new technology,” Reitz said.

With UnionTech’s industrial SL printers, the imaging comes from below, not from above, which is what differentiates the machines from other SLA 3D printers.

“There are so many new ways to make things, but SL has the widest range of materials and sizes.”

UnionTech recently opened a new facility in St. Charles, Illinois, and its parent company had its PILOT series on display at RAPID, showcasing the 450 x 450 x 400 mm 450 3D printer – the largest in the commercial series – at its booth and the smaller 250 at the DSM booth.

The company’s new RSPro 1400, which wasn’t on display at RAPID and will begin shipping late Q3 2018, features dual lasers, auto calibration, and a scanning system, along with a carbon fiber-reinforced blade for 3D printing large-scale parts with no visible lines. The 3D printer, with a 1.4 x 0.7 m platform, is targeted more towards production markets in automotive, consumer goods, and foundries.

But both the 250 and 450, which are “cost-effective” and can be used to create “really good-looking parts,” were designed specifically for 3D printing users that could use their industrial capabilities at a lower cost.

Reitz said, “How do you build a machine more cost-effective than others?”

The answer, at least when it comes to leveling, is to keep things simple with a motorized cart and elevator located below the machine. A granite recoater frame and side rails offer increased recoating stability, and this simple material delivery system also features a built-in heating element.

According to Reitz, UnionTech’s competitors use RFID, and constantly have bottles pumping in and out. But because UnionTech manufactures open source 3D printers, the company can avoid this and keep things cost-effective, while widening the market segment for users, because its 3D printers work with any 350 nanometer material; for example, Somos material has been qualified for use with UnionTech since 2002.

“We see this making SL approachable for those who thought it was too expensive before,” Reitz explained, and said that the company was “doing big things on the commercial side to make this technology more approachable.”

Reitz also explained that UnionTech keeps its costs down by making sure parts are more lightweight – it manages this by using TetraShell software from Materialise to hollow out its reinforced parts. He also said that other 3D printers, such as HP’s MJF technology, have material costs because they have to print a support layer for each part layer, which UnionTech doesn’t do.

The PILOT series of 3D printers by UnionTech, which can perform on par with production SL systems and include a full range of commercial SL materials, starts at under $100,000.

Check out more pictures from my visits with Ultimaker, Raise3D, and UnionTech at RAPID below:

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Jabil has established a name for itself in the additive manufacturing industry over the last several years as the technology has become an important strategic focus for the product solutions company. At RAPID + TCT, the Jabil Additive Manufacturing Network was introduced as manufacturing speed and agility take a step forward. Calling it a “major milestone in Jabil’s digital transformation journey,” the company’s new cloud network was designed to empower users to localize manufacturing operations, bringing workloads into markets that make more sense from a business perspective.

Ahead of the announcement and an in-person discussion at RAPID, I caught up with John Dulchinos, Vice President of Digital Manufacturing at Jabil, to discuss this launch as well as the company’s expansion in Singapore and partnership with HP Inc. We focused on Jabil’s building up of additive manufacturing capacity, expanding capabilities, and bringing automated print management to market.

“What we’re excited about at this point is really a few points that I think are noteworthy. One is that we’re finally putting capacity down around HP printers, we’re doing this in Singapore and we’re doing this because we’re qualified now for more than 140 part numbers for production for the 300/500 series,” Dulchinos explained, as these 140 parts are certified for use in production to make the popular new series of 3D printers; “the printer that prints itself,” as he’s called this application before.

In Singapore, Jabil is bringing its Jet Fusion capacity close to bear for its team, as the capacity is co-located with end-use production for HP 3D printers and other products. As the team at Jabil have become more comfortable with and confident in the capabilities of Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) 3D printing, particularly regarding repeatability and quality requirements, Dulchinos noted that they are thinking of 3D printing along the same lines as injection molding “or any other process you would use to make a part.” While he is transparent that 3D printing is “still a very immature technology,” and that there is “still a lot of work to take it to a point where you feel like you can produce with machine-to-machine and location-to-location same quality,” Dulchinos is confident that this direction represents a future-looking strategic advantage.

Six HP Jet Fusion 4210 3D printers at Jabil’s Singapore facility being used for high-volume production, including making functional parts for HP’s 300/500 printers [Image provided by Jabil]

recently installed, he explained that the location is “less about the benefits of a low-cost region and more about locating production and component closer to the ultimate user, which in this case is other manufacturing locations where we’ll produce the printers.” The co-location benefit here is that they are printing parts for the HP 3D printers on the third floor of the Singapore location and are immediately able to put these parts on a cart, take the elevator down to the first floor, and install them — a true illlustration of a just-in-time solution for manufacturing.

“Now we’re really running a just-in-time operation. We’re ready for the production line, without storing the inventory. Now we’ve got this operation where we’re not paying shipping costs, not paying tariffs, not paying storage,” Dulchinos told me. “It’s really a just-in-time operation that’s really working out.”

The importance of cutting shipping costs out from operations cannot be underscored enough. Removing the need for shipping materials, the costs and environmental impacts of global transportation via air or ship, and the need for receiving and ground transportation to end-use location is a massive advantage in terms of time, cost, and environmental footprint enabled by agile digital manufacturing.

Jabil now operates more than 100 3D printers at facilities in Singapore, the US, China, Hungary, Mexico, and Spain. Operating high-speed sintering, FFF, and polymer and metal laser sintering, among other 3D printing processes, the company offers soluitons in the footwear, industrial machines, transporation, aerospace, and healthcare industries.

“What’s really powerful is that we’ve developed this Additive Manufacturing Network,” Dulchinos said, introducing the 3D printer-agnostic network. “It allows for the creation of a workflow that can qualify and produce parts in a variety of different locations. In this particular case, we’ve been doing this in Silicon Valley. What it takes to move production from Silicon Valley to Singapore is really just putting machines down. If it makes sense to run production in Singapore, we will; if it makes sense to run production in Silicon Valley, we will. It’s a turn of the digital dial… and all that is able to be done in a truly digital way.

“We characterize it as printer-agnostic… We run HP, but also others — filament, SLA, powder bed — and all are connected on the same Additive Manufacturing Network. There’s a powerful ability to move production to other areas, but also focus production on different capabilities. A solution that works best on FFF 3D printers, we can send to those. We store in the digital thread not only the process requirements, but the material requirements and more, all in a very qualified way, to move that production around. I think that’s a very powerful capability. The digital thread that comes from a printing company tends to be built very narrowly around a specific printer; in our case we do all this in a much more generalized fashion.”

To provide deeper context to the latest, Dulchinos noted that his team has been expanding over the last year or so to include more individuals with backgrounds in aerospace. The expertise added through this background has helped to build a comprehensive approach to certify and qualify manufacturing solutions “that can satisfy the rigor that an industry like aerospace requires.” These solutions can then trickle down to less demanding applications, such as consumer goods, held to less stringent regulatory structures and benefiting from the experience of those demanding approaches.

“This is a really powerful framework to build into our Additive Manufacturing Network that gives us the confidence that we can build parts on what’s still a rudimentary technology, 3D printing, and have to be repeatable, produce a high-level yield, and have us confident we’re producing repeatable parts on some volulme,” he said. “That’s really critical if we’re going to start distributing our manufacturing around… Process, material, machine capability: how we put those together to be able to do that over and over again as required in manufacturing. That certification has been a really good enabling capability. Without that, the rest of this stuff looks good, but you don’t really have the confidence you can do it over and over again as needed. Manufacturing is about really how to dial in a process at a level you have confidence you can do it repeatably, with as little scrap as possible.”

In speaking with Dulchinos ahead of the event, he highlighted three primary takeaways for what Jabil would be highlighting at RAPID + TCT:

Starting to put down first capacity now with HP that’s really allowing Jabil to be co-locating in a manufacturing facility to do just-in-time manufacturing in a distributed basis.

The new Additive Manufacturing Network that allows Jabil to connect all these printers in the company in a network and give them the ability to manage our distributed manufacturing footprint.

Certification, qualification process is really amazing to watch Jabil’s experts have conversations with aerospace, transportation, industrial companies and talk about this: “Probably the most exciting thing people latch on to. Most of these companies haven’t figured out a way to have confidence in dependability and repeatability, ability to produce consistently at a high yield — I think we’ve figured that out and it’s very powerful.”

He noted these as important building blocks to Jabil’s forward progress and focus on additive manufacturing as a global digital manufacturing solution. A powerful aspect he touched on was the capability enabled for operating at a smaller scale while maintaining efficiency.

This, and a discussion of design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), translated directly to the conversation we continued on the show floor in Fort Worth, Texas, where we were joined by Scott Schiller, Global Head of Customer and Market Development, 3D Printing, and David Tucker, 3D Print Market Development, Plastics Engineering and Design, both of HP.

“We can optimize the economics of that kit of products. That’s how we got to 140 parts. Whereas traditional manufacturing is like a spreadsheet, where you produce one line at a time, additive manufacturing is doing the whole spreadsheet at once.”

For one example of streamlined production, Dulchinos had highlighted that DfAM enabled a redesign of a 39-piece assembly down to two parts.

“We could design all that into two parts, to take advantage of the design flexibility that additive allows us. This is not necessarily a requirement of what we’re trying to do, but in the future this is part of the value we’re working to unlock with additive. When you eliminate 30-some-odd assembly steps, every one of those has costs and time involved that could be eliminated, and produces a much better solution for the customer,” Dulchinos said.

The kit and just-in-time thinking enabled by 3D printing allow for a rethinking not only of design, but of the steps involved in manufacturing.

“Everyone is used to molds for individual parts, and now we’re thinking of families of parts. We can also learn more in the field, how this opens up unique opportunities, how to manage more,” Schiller continued.

“There was a journey we had to go on to get a population of engineers to think differently — there are a lot of facets to that. We are definitely still on that journey. To the best of our knowledge, we are not aware of other machines on the market today with 140 unique parts created this way. There’s a snowball effect, a pull from the engineering community.”

Each of those 140 parts “makes business sense,” HP 3D Printing President Stephen Nigro affirmed from the keynote state on Thursday morning as well; while highlighting the benefits of additive manfuacturing, HP is certainly not using this use case just as a look at what could be possible. Each of the redesigned components has been created because it makes sense to have done so, whether by reducing assemblies or through a reduction in time/cost of manufacture.

Stephen Nigro speaking during the keynote session

The agility allowed for in engaging engineers to rethink design for just-in-time manufacturing also allows for on-the-go thinking and adopting lessons learned along the way as experience continues to build. In traditional manufacturing, and particularly for injection molding, such agility is severely limited as once a mold is made, it is made and any changes would require an expensive and time-consuming process to redesign and build a new mold.

“In a traditional molding operation, once a design is locked down, any changes are exceptionally painful. It’s cutting steel,” Dulchinos said. “Here, there is no lockdown. We can incorporate learning right into production. If recutting steel, you need to make sure it’s worth it; with MJF, the change is allowed. Looking at what creates inefficiencies can change the design, and we could never do it so fast before.”

Tucker noted as well that learning on the go has been a major part of the process with HP. Awareness of learning management has allowed for enhanced agility and regular revisiting of solutions.

“There was a mindset before that there could be no change once a design was locked down. Now, 3D printing allows us to integrate learning, which is very valuable to manufacturing, to create a better finished part. This has been a powerful journey. We do development and supply of parts for HP in Silicon Valley, and now in Singapore; now we can do this by moving a digital file. For two sites, maybe this is nothing special; take it up to ten sites, and it becomes very powerful,” Dulchinos told me.

“There was a tremendous amount of learning that HP engineers did from the first to second generation. With all this in just one product evolution, comopound that over two, three, four, five evolutions and it will be really powerful how far capabilities are pushed.”

Catching up with Jabil and HP is always enlightening, as the teams continually push forward for a new, agile, realizable future of digital manufacturing. Rethinking not only design and distribution, but the entire ecosystem of global manufacturing, is paving the way to real solutions setting up the next evolution of this industrial revolution.

In the Chinese village of Shanyinwu, in Tonglu County in Huangzhou, is a pleasant-looking stone bed and breakfast that occupies a sloping plot facing a reservoir with a hillside filling the background behind it. LEI House, as the B&B is called, is a three-story building with a large courtyard and garden in front of it, and while its stonework already makes it stand out among its neighbors, what really catches the eye is a structure within that courtyard. The pavilion is made up of white blocks that make it look sort of like a futuristic igloo, with light shining through the partially translucent material. It was designed to evoke a typical masonry structure, and it’s entirely 3D printed.

Looking at LEI House, one has a sense of calm and peace – feelings that anyone would hope to associate with a bed and breakfast. The owner of the building lives there as well as hosts guests, and she wanted the structure to be a true part of the village, made from local materials and methods. As such, LEI House was constructed in a very green manner, clad entirely in scraps of slate from a nearby stone-processing factory. The stone is laid using a traditional technique over structural outer walls made from hollow concrete blocks, showing how traditional and modern materials and methods can be combined.

“The house has a brick and concrete structure that is most commonly used by local artisans,” the company said. “The three-storey height, the simple vertical volume and the limited window openings together with the exceptionally compact interior space almost dated back to the old rammed-earth houses in the local area.”

The cube-shaped pavilion was constructed from translucent 3D printed blocks, which each have varying degrees of transparency to let different amounts of light in. This gives the pavilion a luminous, almost shimmering look when the light shines through it.

“The transparency and texture of the pavilion contrast sharply with the heavy volume of the dense castle-like stone walls,” the architects said. “Their extremely simple forms correspond nicely with each other in the rural setting, forming a pure, retrained, pristine yet mysterious futuristic rural touch.”

The simplicity of the structure, and the ease in which it was built, serve as examples of how 3D printing can be used for construction in rural communities where there is a shortage of skilled labor and professional project managers. In this case, the 400 3D printed plastic blocks were produced in one month by three separate suppliers in Beijing and Nanjing. The pavilion was then assembled by two inexperienced villagers in just three days.

3D printed pavilions have become popular ways to show off the technology’s potential for unique construction. The pavilion is an excellent way to showcase 3D printing’s abilities to create unique geometries, as well as to build a structure for low cost and in a remarkably short amount of time – without having to worry about the other things that come with a residential building, such as plumbing and electricity. They can also be beautiful, functional works of art. Both the LEI House pavilion and the house itself are excellent examples of how old and new construction techniques together can be used to create something attractive, functional and sustainable.

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3D printing and additive manufacturing have completely changed modern supply chain practices, especially in consideration to manufacturing. Proposed tariff increases will likely accelerate this impact. Additive manufacturing has become more common in every industry including the production of fasteners. These added tariffs could accelerate the automation currently taking place as well as put pressure on 3D printing manufacturers to make their printers use as little material as possible. Businesses are always challenged with finding new solutions to adapt to a changing environment whether it be legislation, consumer wants/needs or economic factors. In this case, these tariffs could encourage fastener manufacturers to invest in additive manufacturing to keep the need for costly raw materials as low as possible. Effected fastener companies who would invest in 3D printing may be eligible to take advantage of the Research and Development Tax Credit.

The Research & Development Tax Credit

Enacted in 1981, the now permanent Federal Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit allows a credit that typically ranges from 4%-7% of eligible spending for new and improved products and processes. Qualified research must meet the following four criteria:

Must be technological in nature

Must be a component of the taxpayer’s business

Must represent R&D in the experimental sense and generally includes all such costs related to the development or improvement of a product or process

Must eliminate uncertainty through a process of experimentation that considers one or more alternatives

On March 18, 2018, the United States Department of Commerce announced a new tariff on steel and aluminum. Steel and aluminum would be taxed at 25 and 10 percent respectively. NAFTA was excluded from this tariff although this administration has hinted at the possibility of that changing.

In Support of the Tariffs

Since the announcement of these tariffs a little over a month ago, effects are already being felt. US-based steel companies like Nucor and Alcoa (Subsidiary of Arconic) have seen their stock prices surge since the announcement was made. Nucor is the largest producer of steel in the US, producing around 15 million tons a year. It has a fastener division with a large production facility in Indiana as well as testing lab in Memphis where experiments within 3D printing are conducted. Nucor tests different solutions in its lab to see if implementation of additive manufacturing while producing certain products is more cost effective. With steel tariffs favoring Nucor, the implementation of additive manufacturing could allow the company to be the top supplier of steel and steel products in the United States.

In Opposition of the Tariffs

Arrow Fastener Company LLC is not as excited about the new tariffs. The company has been making heavy-duty tools like staple and nail guns for over 90 years. Arrow is a New Jersey-based company that currently employs over 280 Americans, and was looking to expand. However, after the steel tariff was passed, the company is going to have to halt its plans to expand and hire 56 more people. The company imports one hundred percent of its banded wire steel from China for its fasteners.

Effects of Tariffs in Other Nations

Rusal PLC is one of the largest suppliers of aluminum in the world. Based out of Russia, the company has refineries, mines and smelters across the globe. American companies as well as close American trade allies (European nations, Japan and South Korea) now have until October 23rd to find a different supplier and avoid paying the ten percent tariff. Rusal PLC having higher prices will likely create a higher price for everyday goods such as soda cans and aluminum foil, create a surplus of aluminum that cannot be sold, lead to Rusal laying off employees across the globe or a combination of one or more of these outcomes.

In order for these companies to adapt to a hike in the price of raw materials, 3D printing could be part of the solution. 3D printing cuts back on the amount of waste in the manufacturing process in comparison to other methods like casting, forging or CNC machining. The effects of automation can already be felt in the larger economy and this trend is only being accelerated by innovations in 3D printing and now tariff legislation.

To learn more about the fastener industry and its 3D printing applications, please consider attending the International Fastener Expo in Las Vegas October 30th – November 1st, 2018.

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The 3Doodler has turned out to be quite a versatile tool, being used by everyone from hobbyists to professional artists to create everything from tiny knickknacks to full-sized sculptures. The company’s major focus, however, has become education. 3Doodler releases new STEM-centered educational packages on a regular basis, and its products have been used in more than 5,000 classrooms by over 300,000 students. DonorsChoose.org has also placed 3Doodler kits in more than 600 middle- and low-income classrooms.

Today 3Doodler is introducing its latest product line for the classroom. The 3Doodler Create+ EDU Learning Pack and 3Doodler Start EDU Learning Pack were designed for and with teachers. Each one consists of 6 or 12 3Doodler pens (Create or Start, depending on the package) and 600 or 1,200 strands of plastic, as well as other tech accessories, lesson plans and classroom materials. The kits are specially designed for classrooms from kindergarten to 12th grade.

“All our 3D pens are made to be as simple and easy to learn as possible, avoiding obstacles between a user and their ability to create,” stated 3Doodler. “This quality had to be carried through every aspect of the new EDU Learning Pack product experience, from the moment the teacher and students open their boxes, to when they make their first doodle. And what better way to truly understand the needs of teachers and students in the classroom, than to ask teachers?”

The company is also releasing the 3Doodler Create+ EDU Teacher Experience Kit and 3Doodler EDU Start Teacher Experience Kit, which are designed to be trial packs for teachers considering introducing the 3Doodler into their classrooms. Each of the Teacher Experience Kits includes one 3Doodler pen and a sampler of plastic, as well as abbreviated lesson plans and classroom materials.

“These products represent 3Doodler’s continued commitment to inspire students pursuing STEM interests and passions,” said Leah Wyman, 3Doodler’s Head of EDU. “We pride ourselves on creating accessible 3D products and making it fun to learn in the classroom.”

The 3Doodler EDU Learning Packs will be available at 3Doodler.com/edu as well as other retailers such as Amazon and Best Buy at prices ranging from $349 to $1,199. The Teacher Experience Kits will be available from 3Doodler.com/edu and select education-based resellers with an MSRP of $29 and $59.

According to a recent survey of more than 7,000 school librarians by School Library Journal, middle or junior high schools spent the most on maker supplies or equipment — an average of $1,076, compared to $743 in elementary schools and $700 in high schools. 3Doodler has priced its Learning Packs and Teacher Experience Kits to fit into school budgets.

The new 3Doodler EDU Learning Packs and 3Doodler EDU Teacher Experience Kits come recommended by Kokoa, one of Europe’s leading agencies for the evaluation and recognition of EdTech.

Multiple case studies have shown that 3Doodler products incentivize performance among students, diversify teaching methods, stimulate kinesthetic and visual learners, improve concentration among students, including those with ADHD, and level the playing field between male and female students, particularly in STEM subjects.

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Business networking has been affected worldwide with the ability to collaborate in cloud-based networks. That technology is expanding even further now with Manufacturing Network, a platform created by SAP Ariba and SAP—bringing together the largest business network with leading digital manufacturing applications.

Improved methods for working on projects in the cloud will allow companies around the globe to coordinate more fluidly and affordably—resulting in better brainstorming, improved workflow, and faster production for teams using progressive technology like 3D printing. Cloud-based activities are becoming more widespread and affect a wide range of industries. In 3D printing, numerous products have been rolled out for cloud-based software and cloud-based printing solutions, along with collaboration tools for designers and even programs for classrooms and educators.

The release of Manufacturing Network was announced during SAP Ariba Live, a business commerce conference held last week in Amsterdam.

“Manufacturing today is more distributed and global than ever before. To do it well, companies must connect people, processes, things and information, and that’s what networks are all about,” said Vasee Rayan, Vice President, Solutions Management, Ariba Network.

Such concepts go hand in hand with companies engrossed in using technology like 3D design and 3D printing to revolutionize their manufacturing processes, offering a completely new way for teams to design, prototype and produce high-performance parts and innovations that may not have been possible previously—or nearly as affordable.

Today, 3.3 million businesses use the Ariba Network, with over $1.6 trillion in transactions occurring there each year. Manufacturing Network is designed to enable companies to take projects and manufacturing to an even further level—looking forward to greater power and speed in communication.

“The digitally enabled, thinking supply chain is a critical journey to take for manufacturers, because while efficiency and effectiveness gains will enable returns on investment in the short term, new ways of doing business and the new capabilities they enable will be essential for the future,” said Simon Ellis, Program Vice President – Supply Chain IDC Manufacturing Insights. “In leveraging domain specific networks and the technologies underlying them to drive an end-to-end process, manufacturers can drive better efficiency in their supply chains and use that to improve the customer experience.”

[Image: SAP Ariba]

The Manufacturing Network will offer features such as:

The ability to collaborate on projects, highlight team member edits, and make suggestions

Link business discussions centered around products and other information

Discuss price quotes and plans for purchases

Embed and share data regarding projects and new products

Discuss changes with manufacturers and suppliers

Both SAP Ariba and SAP provide services and technology to streamline business performance for organizations of all sizes, and for all their different divisions. You can find out more about SAP Ariba and their services here, and SAP’s enterprise application software here.

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First is that reviews act as social proof. The more reviews you have, the more likely it is that people will check out your offer, instead of your competitors’.

The second way is that online reviews can give you valuable information about your brand or products. And it’s not only about knowing what aspects of the product your customers like or dislike, but also about how they intend to use it.

What’s even better, the words your customers use to describe your product or brand when leaving a review can help you improve your website copy – and make it feel more natural and SEO-friendly.

Step 2. Assign them a tag, e.g., one that tells you which product category they enjoyed.

Step 3. Send them a “thank you for your purchase” message.

Step 4. Wait 10 or more days so that the customer gets a chance to use your product.

Step 5. Send an email asking them to leave a review.

And this is what it looks like in a workflow.

Best of all? I created this workflow using one of our marketing automation templates. All I had to do is adjust the settings for the individual elements, i.e., choose the appropriate tag and emails I wanted to send.

2. Help customers browse your site

How often do people land on one of your landing pages directly, skipping the homepage altogether?

Whether they came from organic, referral, or a paid campaign, it might be that they “jumped the line” and never even got to thoroughly browse your site.

If you’re in ecommerce, this is a big challenge as you want your customers to know what products and categories you’re offering.

So, what can you do about it?

Make sure that you show everyone around after they’ve joined your email list.

You can do it using marketing automation workflows to onboard new customers.

In a moment, you’ll see how.

In one of my previous articles, I talked about four distinct levels of welcome campaigns.

These are:

Single welcome email

Welcome email series

Welcome email series with tagging and scoring

Welcome email series with tagging, scoring, and behavior-triggered messages

To introduce new customers to all the product categories, I’d suggest that you skip the single welcome email and go straight for one of the more advanced types of campaigns.

A welcome email series is just another name for a simple autoresponder sequence. In other words, a set of messages sent one after another, at a chosen time interval.

So, in your welcome email, you’d say thanks for either joining your list or making a purchase.

And in the messages that come after, you could provide recommendations and hint at other categories.

E.g., if they purchased running shoes, you could recommend some vitamins or rain jackets for running.

Here’s what a post-purchase follow-up email could look like.

If you decide to step it up a little, then add tagging and scoring to your workflow. With these, you can assess your customers’ engagement and tag them according to their interest.

For example, if they clicked on the “rain jacket for running” category, you could tag them as “outdoor runner.” Which in turn, will help you send them more-targeted communication in the future.

Below you can see two workflows that you could use:

Welcome new customers and introduce them to your other categories.

Tag them according to the categories they’ve clicked in the previous workflow.

From there you decide if you want to follow up with your audience manually or automatically – using behavior-triggered emails.

The latter solution requires a little more effort upfront, but it’s also got one key advantage.

3. Stay on top of your customers’ minds

Not everyone who visits your site is going to convert straight away, just as not everyone’s going to buy from you on a regular basis.

But does that mean you shouldn’t be keeping in touch with them? What if they’re genuinely interested, but simply not ready to commit at this particular moment?

Believe it or not, this is often the case. Especially if you’re in a seasonal business or working in B2B, where the approval path is longer.

That’s why you should be running something that’s often called a top of mind campaign. And as the name implies, it’s a campaign that helps you stay on top of your customers’ minds.

Here’s a fragment of an email from Death to Stock where they offer a free photo pack every month. Do you see the subtle hint at the end of this message?

Your top of mind campaign could be a simple monthly newsletter containing product or company updates.

Or it could be an automated sequence or autoresponder that’s sent out every month, automatically.

What’s important is that your emails shouldn’t be all about selling your product.

Instead, they should be focused on providing your audience with value and only slightly be hinting that you’ve got a special offer for them.

Be patient and don’t worry – they’ll buy from you when they’re ready.

Here’s how Trello’s using email campaigns to provide valuable content to their audience who are using the free version of the platform.

Notice how only at the very end of the newsletter, they’re suggesting that you can use more advanced (premium) features like team collaboration. Just like in the example I’ve shown you just a moment ago.

4. Launch a new product

If you’re thinking about launching a new product, you should consider using a variety of online marketing channels.

Now think about some of the most prominent brands like Apple or Samsung. All of them announce their products months before production starts.

Would that work for a smaller company like yours?

It certainly could.

Just remember that you have to form strong relationships first.

There are a few ways to do this.

First of all, make sure that you’re not building just an email list but a club. All the members of your club should know that they’re getting exclusive information and news about your products. Make them feel like they’re part of something bigger.